c1910 Alcatraz US Military Prison Original Photo San Francisco Bay 10.5\" For Sale

The reverse bears a handwritten pencil notation identifying the scene:

“Across the Bay toward Marin Co
Alcatraz Island at left
U.S. Military Prison”

The wording is historically significant for dating purposes. The U.S. Army formally designated Alcatraz the Pacific Branch, U.S. Military Prison in 1907. In 1915 the institution was renamed the Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks. Alcatraz remained a military facility until its transfer to the federal prison system in 1933–34.

If the handwritten identification is contemporary with the photograph, its reference to Alcatraz specifically as the “U.S. Military Prison” suggests an approximate 1907–1915 period. Because the photograph itself is undated, this attribution should be regarded as a historically informed approximate date rather than a definitive photographic date.

An unusual early view of Alcatraz well before its famous federal-penitentiary era, particularly appealing for collections relating to San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, U.S. Army prisons, California history and early twentieth-century photography.

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